Peripheral devices such as image scanners, printers, and multi-function peripherals are widely used. Examples of known interfaces for connecting these peripheral devices are a serial interface, parallel interface, USB, IEEE1394, and LAN.
To make a peripheral device usable on a computer, it is necessary to install a device driver and/or application software for the peripheral device (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-334449).
However, some computers are imposed restriction of installation of the device driver or application software. This restriction is often imposed for security protection. For example, an operating system (OS) such as Microsoft Windows® permits only a user having administrator's privileges to install a device driver. In this situation general users cannot install the device driver or application software and cannot therefore use the peripheral device. Such a situation is expected to take place frequently when a user wants to borrow somebody else's computer away from the user's home or office.
Conventionally, even a user given administrator's privileges needs to install a device driver before connecting an image reading device. That is, it is so far impossible to use a peripheral device without installing a device driver in a computer.
The device driver is generally distributed by a CD-ROM. A user cannot install the device driver without having the device driver CD-ROM. For example, loss of the CD-ROM makes device driver installation impossible. The device driver is usually available via the Internet. To do this, however, an environment allowing connection to the Internet is needed. It is also necessary to correctly find, read and input the URL of the web site that distributes the device driver or the type and name of the peripheral device, resulting in cumbersomeness.